johnc

One thing I've learned by owning a shop is to keep my opinions about a customer's dreams to myself. My job is to fullfill my customer's dreams, not create them. I will speak up regarding safety items and will make recommendations about what should be done and in what order to achieve the customer's dream car, but if you want to put a BB Chevy in a Yugo to go ice racing, I'll help you get it done.

I recommend the Nissan Motorsports pressure plate and clutch for L6 applications. Or for those on a budget, a well rebuilt or new stock pressure plate and Nissan Motorsports clutch.

A number of us west coast 240Z racers instructing at MSA's West Coast Nationals were given Centerfoce baseball caps as SWAG. We all handed them back because we were convinced they would just slip off our heads. The following is pure conjection on my part: I think the issue with CF clutches is high rpm usage and Speeder touches on it in his post. CF runs lighter diaphram springs to get a softer clutch pedal and they compensate with the diaphram spring weights. Those spring weights tend to slow the clutch release when shifting at higher rpm (over 6,000 rpm). This causes the clutch to drag and creates heat. Over time the clutch just wears out quicker. At lower rpms (Like in most V8 applications) the design works fine.

Uuuhhhh, there's a big step from not getting the best jobs to being sodomized.

We do have one data point: Amir's SR260Z. Weight: 2,150 lbs. WD F/R: 47/53 Specifics: 1974 260Z, 15 gallon fuel cell (1/2 full), race drivers' seat (no passenger seat), roll bar, FG hood, FG bumpers, 17 x 9 and 17 x 10 wheels, aluminum dash, no interior, no HVAC, no driver or passenger windows or mechanisms, R180.

Actually, in a 240Z the LR wheel is further away from the MC then the RR if you look at the length of the brake tubing.

Sunbelt in Sugar Hill Georgia also sends stuff out for Nitriding: 770-932-0160

I've used this for a long time: http://www.jpegimager.com

A friend of mine (Bob) was a Nissan Master Tech and worked at Nissan/Infinity dealerships for 15 years. When he started out he too got all the crap jobs. He just sucked it up and worked his butt off doing the jobs as quickly as he could, as well as he could, and had a positive attitude the whole time. After about 12 months he started getting the good jobs because he made the service writers look good with the customers and management. After 3 years, even though he was still the "new" guy, he was getting the real good jobs and was billing 70 hours a week and working 40. At 5 years he was the highest paid tech at the dealership. After 10 years he was the lead diagnostic guy for Nissan/Infinity here in SoCal and troublesome vehicles were sent to him by other Nissan/Infinity dealerships for problem solving. He ended up billing 20 hours a week as straight time directly to Nissan in addition to his regular flat rate work at the dealership. So, put our head down, work hard, stop complaining, and sometimes you'll reap some rewards...

I opened a shop 3 years ago and mostly do all the work by myself. There's a hot rodder/ex-Nissan Master Tech doing the same thing in my complex so we help each other out when needed. We check on each other at the end of the day to make sure one of us isn't pinned under a car or knocked out. There's also a small group of ex or current 240Z racers that meet sporadically at a pizza place. We swap stories, go faster with each meeting, and generally BS our way through dinner. If one of us needs help we generally try and help out. I tried the club thing and was bored. I have much more fun instructing at the West Coast Nationals driving school then walking around the show the next day. Showed my 240Z once at the West Coast Nationals and was bored silly after the first hour. If the HybridZ guys weren't there to keep me entertained I would have walked up to Dromo1 and dropped $120 on kart time.

Actually, you're right. I have to go back and read my Relativity books again. As you can see, I'm no Einstein...

Naaahhhh. As long as you maintain them properly, run good race pads and fluid, and get air to them, they work fine on a race track.

Stainelss steel has a 50% greater coefficient of thermal expansion then carbon steel. This trait and the creation of low melting metals (sulpher, phosphorus) in the weld pool can lead to hot cracking as the weld cools and shrinkage stresses build. For most of what we do that's not a problem because of the thin sections we tend to use. For thicker sections and parts that go through heat cycles hot cracking is an issue. Welding a mild steel turbo flange to a stainless steel turbo header will guarantee a failure unless the proper filler is used (308 or 309L).

I ran Mike's setup as well on the ROD. I did run 2800s on back and changed the piston sizes around a little bit.

Then purge the tank with Argon before welding. Remeber, Argon is heavier then air so as you're purging leave an opening on top to let air out. Tape off all the openings except where you're welding, make sure the welding area is at the top, and run the purge for about 1/2 hour at 15cfm through a well sealed side opening. Continue running the purge and start welding.

You can weld 300 series stainless steel to mild or medium carbon steel. Its not that difficult and just requires the proper filler selection and process. For thin wall (under .125" thick) sheet use 308L filler and get a lot of the filler into the weld pool. For thicker sections you first "butter" the mild steel side of the weld using a 309L filler and then weld as normal with a 308L filler. Use pure Argon as the sheilding gas and purge or use a flux on backside of the weld.

Oooh! Oooh! I want to play too! Are we using Newtonian Mechanics or Relativistic Mechanics? I want to use Relativistic Mechanics because things get weird... Relativity theory states that the kinetic energy of an object grows towards infinity as its velocity approaches the speed of light while the object's mass decreases to zero. So, our piston/rod combination is losing mass and gaining energy as it is being accelerated on the power stroke and, conversly, gaining mass and losing energy on all other strokes (assuming no accelerative input from the other cylinders - we're talking about a single cylinder engine in this discussion). This mass/energy conversion is not 100% efficient so some is lost to heat. Over time the piston/rod combination will lose enough mass that it will fail in operation or be completely transformed into heat. Based on a quick look at the calculations, I think at the speeds we are talking about it will take about a million years. Now, if we could get the piston/rod combination accelerating close to the speed of light...

It looks like your core support survived the wreck. That would be the one silver lining in this mess.

Got 'em. They work well but are kind of a luxury item. I watched Dave Kent use cut up empty beer cans to find the contour (he had lots of those lying around the shop). He would cut the top and bottoms off with tin snips, split the can, wrap it around the bar and secure it with duct tape, and then slam it into the pipe joint.

Besides what Jon said above, a 48mm x 1.5 pitch bottoming tap is about $90 and I can't imagine how hard it would be to start the thing by hand.

I strongly suggest you make the dash easily removable and removable in sections. It helps considerably with wiring and chasing down problems. To keep rattles down use 1 or 2" wide strips of .012" thick 3M Scotchcal film everywhere two panels meet, overlap, or where the dash is mounted to the car.

The impression I got from the article was that this recon plane was (is) a stopgap using known technology. My guess (like yours) is that the stopgap is no longer needed.

http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_awst_story.jsp?id=news/030606p1.xml

And it would blow by the Vette with a 133mph speed difference.

That works out to $1.85 per revolution and $3.70 to complete the cycle on all 8 cylinders.